What's the best way to wire house for cable TV and modem? I installed
1:8 splitter near where the cable from the cable company enters my house and then ran the cable to each individual room (both TV and cable modem) from that splitter. This way I have only one splitter in the whole house.However, I read online that it is better to have initial 1:2 splitter at entrance with one OUT for cable modem and another OUT for another
1:8 splitter and then run cables to each individual room.
Cable company should be doing the final connection and specs for it. Here it is 1:2 and a limit of 5 on the TV side or more with a DB booster.
The modem is always a home run and can only drive a single modem. A gateway router is used for other locations. Many of the newer cable modems have a built in router.
The 1:2 splitter to the modem is the preferred way because it results in the strongest signal possible to the modem. However, if you have a strong enough incoming signal on the cable, short run to the cable modem, etc it can still work OK with different splitting arrangements.
As an example, I had a single cable line that feeds my home office on the second floor. I have both a TV and cable modem there. I wasn't about to run a seperate cable just for the modem, so I split it off in the basement
1:2 and then again in the office 1:2. Worked fine..
That is a lot of splits. I agree about the 1:2 for the modem and them split the other again. If you really have that many tvs I think you will need a signal booster but you can try it without first.
Personally I have 2 TVs, which count as 3 because I have an input to the cable box and a separate input direct to the TV. I have 3 1:2 splitters in series. The first splitter drives the cable box, because ON-DEMAND wouldn't work if it was fed from the second splitter. The modem is fed from the second splitter. The third splitter feeds the main TV and the secondary TV. I have had no problems with this arrangement.
Bill
Hi, If everything works well, leave it.
Yes, but my cable company installed a directional coupler for the first
1:2, not a splitter. The no-loss split goes to the cable modem, and the -6 split goes to all of the TV's.
Hi, That is called diplexer. But cable signal is often too strong and if everything works alright why bother? I am using an attenuator on my TV to prevent front end over loading which causes white out on the screen. Likewise on the Motorola cable modem. Cable signal is very uneven.
I don't think it's a diplexer. The device is clearly labelled directional coupler, and it is not splitting stuff by frequency (i.e. satellite and cable travelling on the same cable). There is an input, a no-loss output, and a -6 dB output. Wouldn't the outputs of a diplexer by labelled by frequency or device rather than attenuation?
article,
It is definitely not a diplexer. Directional couplers are more commonly used on systems that use QAM256 encoding because that is a little extra sensitive to signal levels (likely because newer devices seem to have even cheesier construction than older marginal stuff).
That is correct - an 8 way splitter is a "stacked" splitter, so the dB loss is significantly higer than on a 2 way - and it MUST be a high frequency splitter - good for 1000mhz. What the cable company did for me was 2 3 way splitters - each one has
2 7dB outlets and a 3.5dB outlet.They dasy chained the second 3-way off the 3.5 of the first, so I have 2 7bD outlets off the first, and one 7dB off the second and 2 10dB off the second. My digital TV box and my internet modem are on the first 2 7dB outlets.Been working great since they did that (replacing a former 8way 15dB splitter)
My cable goes to a 1:4 splitter. One output goes to the cable modem (location of cable modem was largely determined by where the cable comes in). 2 other outputs go to my 2 digital cable boxes (one is HD). the last output connects to another splitter for analog TVs and DVRs.
[snip]
It would be a violation of the laws of physics for a passive device to be capable of providing "no-loss" on one output while still splitting the signal and having it go to two places. A directional coupler may have less insertion loss than a regular splitter, but I thought it's main function was to essentially keep the output sides from transferring most of their signal back to each other, as opposed to it going back out on the input of the coupler.
What's the best way to wire house for cable TV and modem? I installed
1:8 splitter near where the cable from the cable company enters my house and then ran the cable to each individual room (both TV and cable modem) from that splitter. This way I have only one splitter in the whole house.However, I read online that it is better to have initial 1:2 splitter at entrance with one OUT for cable modem and another OUT for another
1:8 splitter and then run cables to each individual room.-----------------
What are the odds of a 1:8 giving any signal strength to work with digital boxes or cable modems? Digital works down to -15db and analogue down to -20db, or so I've read.
My digital Hi-def was pixelating badly on the -7dBb line and is perfect on the -3.5dB line. My high speed internet is fine on -7dB, and had signal strenth issues on -10dB. On -15dB it was just plain cranky.
My digital Hi-def was pixelating badly on the -7dBb line and is perfect on the -3.5dB line. My high speed internet is fine on -7dB, and had signal strenth issues on -10dB. On -15dB it was just plain cranky.
-----------------------------
I'm with Cogeco between Toronto and Guelph and I have both a HD Motorola box on one part of a (cogeco supplied) splitter and a Docsis 3 internet/phone modem and digital box on the other side of the splitter (cogeco supplied splitter).
Now here are my problems: My hd box freezes every couple of weeks. The signal from the cable source is split once at the wall entrance and travels along a 35 foot run to the box. That split is -3.5db so I think I suspect the 20 year old wire or heat issues with the box. There is no picture issues whatsoever.
the other side that provides a signal to my modem and other digital box is also -3.5 db but travels about 60 feet then is split again to feed the modem and the other sd cable box. both runs at this second split at about 5 feet each, maybe less. I've no problem with the box feed and my modem is still providing me with a 24 mbps connection (I pay for 30). We've no phone problems thru this cable modem either. Really that modem is only getting
1/4 signal strength that comes into the homeMy question s short of calling the cableco to test my signal strength (they won't cause I have no problems except for the box which they will exchange only) how can I at home get the signal strength without buying a $400 rf meter or sumtsuch? I have a 12 db amplifier that I'd like to try HOWEVER if the signal is too strong it could cause issues as well. I don't wanna spend a lot of coin just to be curious....
You can measure the signal strength on the modem by going to the modem address/signal.html.
With my Rogers supplied Motorola box the address is
192.168.100.1/signal.htmlMove the modem to the cable box location and you can get the signal strength there too.
One other BIG thing is for digital High Def you NEED to have the heavyier 100% sheilded RG6 cable. Otherwise the cable has too much leakage. ALL of the cable in my house was replaced with the "good stuff" free of charge by Rogers - including installing the 2 splitters.We pulled the new cable to the second floor bay attaching it to the old one and giving it all a REAL GOOD pull.
..
No one that I know of has replaced their existing coax when going to Hi-Def. My cable is 16 years old and works perfectly fine. If you had to do that to get HD, there would be one hell of a lot of bitching all over the place as people got hit with $500+ bill to re-wire a house.
It's not clear why one would even need to do this specific to HD. The cable companies have been using digital coding techniques for years now to cram more channels, be they std or hi def into the same bandwith without rewiring homes. Whether they send you 3 regular channels or 1 HD would seem to make little difference.
second approach is best, even if your 1:8 splitter is amplified, your cable modem is a bidirectional signal and most splitters only amplify in the forward direction so your upload speeds may suffer with the config as you have it. With 1:2 passive splitter up front you don't have that issue.
good luck
nate
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.